You’re gonna have a blast building! (NOT!!) But it’ll all be worth it in the end.
Way to exorcise the neighborhood demons with your rattling curb chain.
Weeble: I too, am saddened to hear of your loss. My thoughts are with you.
A belated Happy Birthday to Merry> Congratulations on a successful show (except the 2nd part LOL!) with Hammie. Definitely, scan pics 
You guessed it Chef I am with the trainer you rode with. 
I’ll keep you posted
I firmly believe they have crammed them into cotton bales and are floating them across the Mississippi. Or, perhaps the light hasn’t changed from red to green at the California border and the shipper (USPS, UPS, whoever) is sitting there waiting for the change.
With a little more practice, they could have that 90’s laying on the neck position down pat!!!
“Of course, that’s only my opinion. I could be wrong.” - Dennis Miller
My copy just arrived from Amazon, and I am really looking forward to reading it while we are on our vacation in Oregon and Washington.
We will be getting together with bumpkin one day, and I am really looking forward to meeting Mallory, Poncho and of course the wonder horse, Eliot!! Poor Mr. Dublin is also going to get dragged to several nice tack shops, where I can ooh and ahh at all the lovely horsey stuff…
Merry, can I pick you up another gold-toned bit? LOL And possibly I will find a gorgeous plume for the handsome Willem…
Expect HorseCity to crash any moment from
the huge stream of COTH BBers rushing to
take a look. I’m on my way now. Vroom! 
Beezer, Merry’s picking on me. Make her stop.
Listen, Merry, if I didn’t know where the Mississippi River was, I’d keep my academic critiques of others to myself! (and with that, elizabeth prances proudly away, muttering “There is a town called Orange, too, you know! You COULD have been speaking of that. . . .”)
So glad you had a great time, Elizabeth.
Just to echo what Merry said, after nearly 25 years of marriage, you’d be amazed at all the things I do vicariously! 
Mo, welcome back… and Toto, too! Geez, and I thought living with earthquakes was bad. My girlfriend grew up in Missouri. She said after a tornado a typical outing would be driving around the countryside, sightseeing, looking at the chickens and pigs that had been driven like nails into the trunks of trees. Is that true??? 
Ah, must get outside and start working with the beasts. What shall I do first? Handwalk the 16.3 hand Dutch horse just coming back from an 11-month lay-up for a bow, or long-line a rambunctious 4yr. old coming back from a 6-month lay-up?
Merry, I agree… you can’t just buy one item from Dover…then you can’t justify that shipping charge! If you are gonna order, you have to order everything you think you might possibly need in the next 6 months and therefore save a few bucks on the shipping!
We used to have a small pony who loved McDonald’s cheeseburgers. Her favorite thing was to hit the drive-through on the way home from a show. The trailer would just fit under the overhang.
People would often get an extra snack for her at lunchtime. Eventually she had to get a sign on her stall: “No more burgers- she’s too fat!”
Remember, the French Drain comes when either Beezer or I inherit the ranch!
(Perish the thought). Okay, when the next rich relative dies and leaves us $$$.
For now, we’ll just not allow it to rain for the remainder of the calendar year. Period. Plain and simple. 
Well, I am headed up north tomorrow…it should be a nice break from work. Thanks to everyone for the nice words of encouragement regarding the job hunt. Tux, I have the resume posted on Monster.com…I’ve gotten several emails. Unfortunately, most are from head hunters, or for jobs that are beyond commuting distance. Anyway, if things get really bad (as in the company goes out of business) I can always go back to working for the government. Not what I’d want to do, but it would be a paycheck. Another guy just quit today, so we are getting really low on people.
Okay, so does anyone else ever get just slightly bummed about going on vacation because they are going to miss riding? I take 3 lessons per week…Wed, Fri and Sat, and I absolutely HATE missing them! So usually I try to schedule my short vacations (like waterskiing) Saturday afternoon (after the morning lesson) to Tuesday. I am such a riding junkie…I need my fix!!!
Hmmmm…is Survivor on yet? Do you suppose Elizabeth has taken his hand yet??? Inquiring minds want to know!!!
Galaway Downs. . . Galaway Downs. . . . elizabeth gets on mapquest to find Galaway Downs. . . . you are TRYING to keep me away from the horse shows, but you’re gonna FAIL. . . . I’ll be there - there’s an egg sandwich with my NAME on it!!!
I’m a little late but , congratulations Rusty!
I refuse to say, “I told you so”, who knows, if Merry hadn’t bought the golden wonder many of us would have never known you could get a GOLD bit!
Well, can you believe it’s just May and we are already in the “get all barn chores and riding done before 11 AM” mode? Keep cool, girls.
You know, you TRY to do something nice by soliciting birthday greetings and felicitations for your “special” sister from her cyberfriends, and WHAT does she do? Stabs you in the back. Methinks she is beginning to take after Rocky the crazed labrador.
Somehow, I just KNEW she would bring up my forgetfulness. But all can rest assured: said presentS (emphasis on the plural) are wrapped and stashed in the vehicle, so they will be delivered on the next trip to the farm. Sheesh.
SIGH…Willem is fabulous!! I don’t know why I had pictured him as a dark bay? No matter - I love chestnuts, and his flaxen-ish mane is just to die for! So cute!
DMJ…Fun??? That doesn’t look like fun to me at all.
I can tell I’m getting old because:
-
On Friday night I slept at my trainer’s so I could take an early lesson and do the 1.5 hour drive the night before. It was raining when we woke up. And even though we have the covered ring I said…“Do I REALLY need to practice for the show tomorrow? I mean I’ve been doing this for 15 years, If I can’t make it around a 3’ course by now I should relly just find a new sport.” Nevermind the fact I have taken 1 lesson since Indio.
-
When my mom woke me up at 6:00 Sunday to go to the show I asked…“Mom, remind me again why I do this?” (especially when it feels about 50 degrees below zero.)
Then we arrive to find out the equidome has been split to 2 miniscule rings and an even smaller warm-up ring. I have heard about this but had never seen it for myself. Keep in mind I’m riding the Princess who I have walked around the equidome on one previous occasion with her snorting, shaking, and heart pounding through the saddle. THIS was going to be very interesting.
Well we actually made it around with no major catastrophes (how the heck do you spell that anyway) We did, however, resemble my trainer’s Jack Russell trying to scamper around a sharp corner on a hard-wood floor. The warm-up ring was a suicide attempt but I have driven on the 405 enough to be able to navigate that much traffic without a problem. In my last class I was about 3 strides out from a line and the horse in the next ring (so all of about 10 feet from me) crashed through a jump and the rider SCREAMED at the top of her lungs as she fell! Jade was soooo good and just ignored it (I was pretty freaked out, though.) So she was by no means “good” but for her…she was great (Its all relative, folks.)
AAJumper…I left just as they were setting for the jumpers. Did you guys even bother to go?
Well I don’t know what else you could have called it besides Wonder Bread, Merry. Sorry you’re getting flamed.
Why, this is the infamous WB pinto mare? She’s adorable. And Merry, your form over fences, are you making sure that the landing side is clear? Wty having done this herself, nows says she’s making sure her horse is on the right lead as an excuse.
C&C do tell? RF was a working partner of the here to fore ex-trainer? No wonder they are such reknowned business people!!
Okay, pony up them thar margarita’s. Purple chicky pippy rusty, please.
